Using the iPhone as a Photographic Tool

I've been a photography buff for as long as I can remember. However I never really pursued photography with any gusto. Back in the days of film it was expensive and time consuming, and I always had other things to do with what little time and money I had. Even in the digital age it can be expensive to get good equipment, and it's still time consuming. But my biggest problem is that I can never be bothered to carry a camera about with me all the time, which is really what you need to do if you want to get those once in a lifetime spur of the moment shots that will get you on the cover of Time magazine. Indeed I often find myself somewhere looking at something unique or some event happening and thinking to myself "That would make a great picture, I wish I had my camera with me." I do own a nice DSLR and a few lenses but alas my camera sits at home, nestled in it's fancy camera bag.

Some time ago I aquired an iPhone 3G. I never really thought much about using the iPhone's camera for much. I did not think of any cell phone camera as a serious photographic tool. I used the camera occasionally, mostly for utilitarian uses, like taking a picture of an empty toilet paper roll to remind me to buy more. The camera on the iPhone 3G isn't that good, so I didn't really use it for pictures I wanted to keep.

Then the iPhone 4 came out. I bought one. It has a much better camera then my old iPhone 3G. Shortly after buying the new iPhone I noticed a trend: I was taking more and more pictures with the iPhone. It was always with me in my pocket, so easy to whip out and snap a picture any time I wanted. It wasn't long before I started taking pictures of everything! Stupid pictures! Things like the empty plate of food I had just eaten, cockeyed street signs, my left shoe... Anything, just because I could. Most of the pictures were junk of course, but I didn't care, I loved taking pictures!

I've started to take this iPhone photography thing a little more seriously now. I like to challenge myself to see just how creative I can get with just a little cell phone camera. New apps appear almost every day that allow me to enhance or manipulate my pictures in some interesting way. I like to see what creative things I can do with these apps. To date I have downloaded more than 68 photography apps for my iPhone.

I find it enjoyable to take pictures and create something interesting from them, I thought I would share my pictures and thoughts in the hope that you the reader may also take enjoyment from them.

All of the pictures on this blog are taken and edited exclusively on the iPhone.